1. Field of the Invention
An awning cover for a slide out unit found on recreational vehicles, mobile homes and the like includes a canopy and scissors-type support arms which extend as the slide out unit is extended from the main body of the vehicle. The scissors arms are mounted at a bias so that a support bar across the underside of the canopy is raised as the awning cover is extended and lowered as the awning cover is retracted with the slide out unit.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Mobile homes have been a mainstay for housing for many years, and in more recent years, motor home type structures have been used and are referred to as recreational vehicles. Similarly, trailers incorporating features of a recreational vehicle are becoming more popular and in each instance, it has become desirable to have the main body of the mobile home, recreational vehicle, trailer or the like expandable to selectively enlarge the living space within the vehicle. In order to accommodate such enlargement, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, trailers and the like are now sometimes provided with slide a out unit, which is a box-like structure having top and bottom walls as well as side walls and an outer wall with the box-like enclosure being motor driven between a retracted position within the interior of the vehicle and an extended position away from one side of the vehicle.
A common problem encountered with slide out units resides in the fact that debris, such as leaves, dust, dirt or the like will accumulate on the top wall of the slide out unit when the unit is extended. And when the unit is subsequently retracted, the debris is brought into the interior of the vehicle. To avoid debris being brought into the vehicle during a retraction of a slide out unit, covers have been provided over the top of the unit which extend along with the slide out unit and also retract with the unit. Any debris accumulating on the cover is therefore discarded as the unit retracts and the cover is rolled into a housing mounted on the side of the vehicle.
An example of an extendable cover for slide-out units is found in U.S. Pat. No. RE 37,567, which is of common ownership with the present application, and while overcoming some problems that were previously prevalent with the use of slide out units, have not been entirely satisfactory as the cover is flat when extended and generally coextensive with the top of the slide out unit so that debris, rain and the like will accumulate on the cover.
It is to provide improvements in awning covers for slide out units that the present invention has been developed.